P.G. Wodehouse Books

P. G. Wodehouse is at his most delightful in this generational romp at Beautiful Blandings Castle, where Lord Emsworth is grieving, first, the dispossession of his beloved prize pig which was somehow stolen in at least four distinct acts of thievery and, second, the untimely return of his erstwhile secretary, the efficient Baxter, while the title's summer lightning strikes every youth in sight with love's blinding ferocity.

In a labyrinthine plot designed to assure the reader that none of the lovers will pair up correctly, that the stolen pig will never be returned, and that Galahad, Emsworth's unreconstructed rogue of a brother will befoul the reputations of the entire House of Lords with his impending memoirs, all the knots untangle in their time, and the sated reader is left with a lingering smile and a bevy of patented extended similes.

Among the best of these describes Gally's niece Millicent at a low point in her young life due to her strained relationship with the man of her dreams. "She looked like something that might have occurred to Ibsen in one of his less frivolous moments."

Wodehouse's unmatched command of his native tongue at play always yields surprises. In this outing, Nature herself is a character personified in luscious clauses like this one: "It was that gracious hour of a summer afternoon...when Nature seems to unbutton its waistcoat and put its feet up." Or this instant of momentous expectancy: "Nature paused, listening. Birds checked their songs, insects their droning. It was as if it had got about that this young man's fate hung in the balance and the returns would be in shortly."

It is Millicent, hesitantly forgiving of her beau, who says, "Any funny business from now on..."

She is answered:

"As if...!"

Thus anticipating Alicia Silverstone of the movie Clueless by about 50 years.

These are a couple of the treats scattered like a well whacked piñata throughout the text, and reason enough to delve into this singular piece of writing. But there's so much more to savor. The outrageous and hardly Honorable Galahad Threepwood, the young men with hearts afire and brains without a noticeable spark, inordinately homely detectives, efficient ex-secretaries, and the indomitable Aunt Constance, all simmering deliciously in as cleverly crafted a plot as Wodehouse has ever cooked up.

And, of course, there's Sue Brown, the chorus girl far too beautiful and far too good for any man in the kingdom, Sue Brown, who has chosen one of the least worthy to love with all her golden heart. Therein lies my only quibble. The author has chosen to focus on the admittedly hilarious plot twists and turns, thereby leaving little space for continuing development of Sue. So tantalizingly promising at her introduction, her character recedes almost to blandness by the final third of the book, until she is little more than a passive and mournful observer of the goings on swirling about her. She deserved a better shake from her creator, on the order of Sally Nicholas (The Adventures of Sally) or Corky Pirbright (The Mating Season). Nobody does the heroic fair maiden like Plum, and one imagines that he meant to do so here but simply lurched off...so much fun to have; so few pages!

In these trying times, Summer Lightning will have the same effect on you as did lovely Sue on the smitten but jealous Ronnie become convinced of her love for only him: "The cloud had passed from his face, the look of Byronic despair from his eyes. He beamed."

As will you.

Although Wodehouse prided himself on his intricately-woven plots, his books succeed largely because of brilliant dialogue and humorous situations. Summer Lightning, written during Wodehouse's long creative peak, succeeds on all levels. A stolen pig, an embarrassing memoir, young love, and doddering old aristrocrats keep the action moving. Thoroughly-enjoyable escapist fare. In this Blandings Castle episode, Lord Emsworth is a relatively minor character and his son, Freddie Threepwood, is all but nonexistent, but Wodehouse's other characters are so amusing that this book succeeds nonetheless.

Summer Lightening is the best Wodehouse novel, introducing many elements for the first time reader which reappear in many other Blandings Castle books. The major elements are: the prize pig called Empress of Blandings, a secretary named Baxter who is very intelligent but not liked by Lord Emsworth, who is the family head but detests everything except the pig, his younger brother Galahad, who is at peak of health by avoiding all healthy stuff, and their imperial sisters who control everyone around them. Read the book and savour.

The Hon. Galahad Threepwood, younger brother of Lord Emsworth, is at Blandings Castle writing his memoirs, much to the consternation of their sister, Lady Constance Keeble, and many blue-blooded neighbors. Amid this, young love becomes repeatedly unstuck, imposters arrive, Baxter returns, and The Empress of Blandings is stolen. All seems lost, until ...

This may be the best of the Blandings series. It introduced Gally, a charming, disreputable younger son of an Earl whose main crimes are enjoying life and refusing to be a snob. He's an older gentleman who is rarely without a whisky in his hand or a story on his lips. If you've never read Wodehouse's Blandings books, this is a good place to start, followed by its sequel, Heavy Wather.

Summer Lightning is one of the several delightful books in the Blandings Castle series by P.G. Wodehouse. Summer Lightning is better than many other P.G. Wodehouse books in that the plot and character development are more thorough than most which keeps the fun going longer.

Clarence, the ninth Earl of Emsworth, is at home in his castle in Shropshire where he dotes on his famous prize-winning pig, the Empress of Blandings. Having dispatched his earlier secretary, Baxter, Clarence is at peace contemplating how his pig will win again when he learns from his brother Galahad (Gally) that the neighbor's pig man is offering 3:1 odds against the Empress. Clarence and Gally presume that their neighbor, Sir Gregory Parsloe is planning to knobble the Empress. Their worst fears are borne out when the Empress disappears!

At the same time, Parsloe lives in fear that Gally will publish old stories about his wild younger days in Gally's new book. Clarence's and Gally's sister Connie wants to stop publication as well. Soon the castle is overrun with manuscript thieves!

At the same time, love is in the air. Clarence's new secretary, Hugo Carmody, is secretly and unsuitably in love with Millicent Threepwood, niece to Clarence, Connie and Gally, and Millicent is in love with him. But they need to get some financial help to pull off the merger.

Ronald Fish, a wealthy young man whose money is tied with Clarence, is also in love with an unsuitable person . . . one Sue Brown who is a chorus girl. Ronnie has proven himself to be a poor judge of investments in the past, and Clarence is skeptical of allowing any more money. It doesn't help when Clarence finds that Ronnie doesn't truly share his love of pigs!

Will love win out? Of course! It's a P.G. Wodehouse book. But before love wins, humor will take the day in many silly scenes worthy of Shakespeare's best in the forest of Arden.

"A splendid Wodehouse vade-mecum; no home should be without a copy. No hotel,tavern,or public accomodation,either. Perhaps the Gideons can be persuaded to branch out and include a copy of this estimable little volume with their other reading matter."

Roger Kimball
Managing Editor of The New Criterion

This book is a great introduction for all new P.G. ("Plum") Wodehouse fans. It provides an easy to read, accessible biographical overview of Plum's life built mostly (say 90%) upon extracts from Plum's books, plays and letters. This means that whilst learning about Plum, you are actually reading Plum, so it kills two thingamajiggies with the one thingamajiggy, as Bertie would say.

So the whole damned idea behind this book is pretty damned good. And the two clever chaps who have put pen to paper here really seem to be know their onions, Plum onions. Besides the normal life history caper that most Plum beginners probably know, his English boarding school education, comic writing and that dashed nasty business of being captured by Jerry in World War II, Misters Day and Ring, dig into some less well known aspects. In particular his Broadway and Hollywood careers, rather than being a sideshow, these two adventures were old Plummy's bread and butter for give or take three decades, and if he hadn't also been something of a big shot in the old quilled pen and printing press department, Plum's career as a lyricist for musical comedy alone would have rocketed him up to the hallowed ranks of the fabulous famous flibbedyjibbets.

The book, and I read the hard cover version, published by the lads at "The Overlook Press", is not to be overlooked. It is a physically fine edition, a decent size, not so big you need your gentlemens' gentlemen to carry it for you, and not one of these flimsy five and dime jobs that self destruct after the first reading either. And did I say the fonts, paper quality and printing is a bang up job too? It even smells like a good book.

And another thing too. Poor old Plum always managed, or so it now seems to me after reading all about it in "In His Own Words", to put his foot firmly in his mouth (Bertie style) whenever he was cornered by one of those journalist johnnies into inquisition by interview. The painful story of how old Plum, recently released by the Jerries from internment ...they considered him too old to worry about, kind of like an undersized trout in a patrolled pond, ...but before moustache face, Tojo and Musso were hit for six by Winston, Ike and Uncle Joe, ...is well known. Essentially a Yankee news hound chap wanted Plum to tell the folks back home via wireless how things were in his enforced jerrie internment stay. Anyhow old Plum spun them a humorous yarn, Bertie Wooster stuff, but quite accurate about playing cricket with the other fish and catching up on his writing. Just what he thought his audience would want to hear. Unfortunately stiff upper lips back home in the Old Blightey were not, shall we say, amused, they wanted Luftstalag 17 stuff with Plum digging tunnels and all that. For a while at least our hero was sent to Coventry, without actually ever visiting Coventry. In fact Old Plummy was probably afraid that if he tried to visit Coventry he would have ended up in Dartmoor. Well if you chaps want to read about that Mr. 1984 himself, Georgie Orwell has written all you'd ever want to know about the whole sordid episode. Still Day and Ring shed extra light.

Well before I got so rudely interrupted by World War Two, I was telling you how Plum only opened his mouth in interviews to change feet. Well the same bother happened before WW2 when he was interviewed about his Hollywood career. Plum's humorous musings were received like a bally lead balloon by the puffins of Beverley Hills. He damned near had himself run out of town on a rail, at least blackballed from the club by members of the species studio tycoonicus. Anyhow as in all those Wooster books, alls well that ends well of course ...and, as in the damned embarassing business repeated just around closing time for WW number two, Plum did manage to get back into the everyone's good books in Hollywood after a brief enforced hiatus. And he did so just by being Plum. Anyhow it's a shame he didn't have Jeeves to look after him.

Evelyn Waugh admired him, and his books were at the bedside of Eudora Welty. P. G. Wodehouse's enormous output of books can be found in castles and cottages, and have been translated into dozens of languages; the Russian versions are particularly adored. It is true that he doesn't appeal to everybody; I have run into many who think he just put out the same silly comedy with interchanging characters. They are completely wrong, but we can't argue about tastes. Barry Day and Tony Ring are two Wodehouse enthusiasts who had the bright idea of taking bits and pieces from Wodehouse's amusing letters, inserting parts of his work, and tying it all together with a very few notes as a small biography. Their book, _P. G. Wodehouse in His Own Words_ (Overlook) is a great success, but it must be said (and they would agree, I am sure) that its success derives from page after page of quotations from the master.

Woodhouse had a happy early life, and loved school. His public school values of fair play, loyalty, and honesty stuck to him all during his life, and may easily be found within his stories. A dip in his father's fortunes made college impossible, and he entered commerce for which he was completely unfit. He had trouble in the basics like getting to work on time. If his supervisor was as good at dry understatement as Wodehouse was, Wodehouse might have gotten the following warning, which comes from one of his books: "I must ask you in future to try and synchronise your arrival at the office with that of the rest of the staff. We aim as far as possible at the communal dead heat." What he did do with fervor was to write stories. It was tough in the beginning, as he took a while to acquire his tone now familiar. "I wrote nineteen short stories in three weeks, I just sent the stories out... (all of which, I regret to say, editors were compelled to decline owing to lack of space. The editors regretted it, too. They said so.)" But once he found his voice, magazines and book publishers in England and in the U.S. were enthusiastic. He crossed to the U.S., working in the theater and in Hollywood. After being imprisoned in Nazi Germany, he settled into working his last decades in America, writing constantly, and tending his dogs and cats. When he died in 1975, he was in the middle of a novel, and he was writing new lyrics for a musical _Kissing Time_ that he had written in 1918. And less than two months before, he had been given his knighthood.

Wodehouse was not Shakespeare. ("Shakespeare's stuff is different from mine, but that is not to say that it is inferior.") His plots can be clever, his characters unbelievable dolts (as is Bertie Wooster, but as is not the invaluable Jeeves), but his expressions guarantee a smile, and possibly a guffaw, on every page. "The Sergeant of Police... was calm, stolid and ponderous, giving the impression of being constructed of some form of suet." "I don't suppose he makes enough out of a novel to keep a midget in doughnuts for a week. Not a really healthy midget." "I've seen worse shows than this turned into hits. All it wants is a new book and lyrics and a different score." "I was in musical comedy. I used to sing in the chorus, till they found out where the noise was coming from." Day and Ring seem to have read every Wodehouse book with total recall to find comments on butlers, golf, America, clubs, and the clergy. Even displaced from his daffy plots and characters, the many quotations here provide spiffing entertainment, and will remind even the best of fans that it is always a good time to get reacquainted with Lord Emsworth, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Aunt Agatha, Psmith, the Mulliners, and all the rest of the balmy crew.

This splendid little tome, co-authored by Wodehouse fans Barry Day and Tony Ring (the latter of whom is President of the International Wodehouse Society) will tickle every rib of anyone who has ever mined the rich, seemingly bottomless vein of humor that is the work of Pelham Greenville "P.G." Wodehouse.

If it is true that the foundation of all comedy lies in truth, then Wodehouse was a master observer of the human race, every hue, stripe and rosette of it. This book brings together so many wonderul excerpts from various Wodehouse works (and he was prolific, authoring more than 90 books in his lifetime), that it has a place not only on the shelf of Sir W.'s fan's but also in the hands of those who have not yet discovered this enduring genius with an exquisite and masterful grasp of the English language.

The only downside to being a Wodehouse afficianado is that one must own a bookshelf just to house all of the books that are "musts" (and most of them are) ... small price to pay for a library that will keep you in the proverbial stitches, come what may.

This is a great addition to that library -- or a good reason to start one of your own.

Right ho!

"A collection of quotations from the Master's letters,essays and fiction loosely connected by witty,fact-filled commentary by Barry Day,to form a concise,bried biography...This belongs on the same shelf with "Wodehouse Nuggets" and "The Wodehouse Companion" - except that you will want to keep it by your bedside or carry it around in your pocket. At the very least,"Wodehouse In His Own Words" will send you scurrying out for Plum's novels and short story collections."

- Michael Dirda
The Washington Post

This recording is the perfect introduction to P.G. Wodehouse and to his most famous characters Bertie Wooster and his butler Jeeves. Listening to Charlton Griffin read the stories will accelerate your appreciation. That's because Griffin already understands all about Bertie, his friends, relatives, and the 1920's London-and-country-house milieu in which they live. This understanding informs the voices, accents, and intonations that Griffin gives the characters. As a result, you almost immediately comprehend that narrator Bertie is a twit--a loveable twit--and that Jeeves is the real gentleman in the stories. It takes a new reader much longer to catch on, which postpones the fun.

Listen to these stories for escapist entertainment and to marvel at Wodehouse's use of the English language, which is among the most inventive since Shakespeare. Evelyn Waugh called Wodehouse "the master" and this recording will tell you why.

Small complaints: A few sound effects seemed superfluous to me, and I would have been glad to have a voice tell me at the end of a side to fast forward and continue from the other side or the next cassette.

I've heard just about everyone on both sides of the Atlantic perform Wodehouse at one time or another, including on stage and in film. Most of the audiobooks seem to have been done by Martin Jarvis and Jonathan Cecil, both very talented. But I'm here to tell you that NOBODY does Bertie Wooster as well as Charlton Griffin. You will be rolling on the floor listening to this one. His tone of voice and the voices he gives all the other characters are just as zany and eccentric as the looney world they live in. If you're a lover of Wodehouse, add this to your collection. If you're looking for an introduction to this hilarious series, this is the place to begin. PLEASE let Mr. Griffin do more of these!!!!

The comical relationship of Bertie and Jeeves, is brought to life with the ever changing voices of Charlton Griffin. His choice of sound effects and music flow naturally, subtly complimenting the setting of the stories. I found myself often chuckling, caught up in Wodehouse's wit. Bertie continually floundering. Jeeves, his cool, collected butler, always coming to the rescue. Griffin moves between characters without hesitation. The effect is magical.... pure listening pleasure.

This recording is the perfect introduction to P.G. Wodehouse and to his most famous characters Bertie Wooster and his butler Jeeves. Listening to Charlton Griffin read the stories will accelerate your appreciation. That's because Griffin already understands all about Bertie, his friends, relatives, and the 1920's London-and-country-house milieu in which they live. This understanding informs the voices, accents, and intonations that Griffin gives the characters. As a result, you almost immediately comprehend that narrator Bertie is a twit--a loveable twit--and that Jeeves is the real gentleman in the stories. It takes a new reader much longer to catch on, which postpones the fun.

Listen to these stories for escapist entertainment and to marvel at Wodehouse's use of the English language, which is among the most inventive since Shakespeare. Evelyn Waugh called Wodehouse "the master" and this recording will tell you why.

Small complaints: A few sound effects seemed superfluous to me, and I would have been glad to have a voice tell me at the end of a side to fast forward and continue from the other side or the next cassette.

This one begins at the Drones Club, just like several of the Bertie Wooster stories, but these are not the Wooster characters. But with wonderful names like the Biscuit, Torquil, Kitchie, and Merwyn Flock, PGW does use some of his usual character types and plot lines: couples engaged to the wrong people, young men needing money. This is good vintage Wodehouse and a rather complex novel, not just a series of stories thrown together. And it was a lot of fun. But give me Bertie Wooster any day!

This 1931 novel has long been one of my favorites among Wodehouse's many novels. It's a mix of farce and romantic comedy; whereas in much of Wodehouse's later work, the love plots seem almost perfunctory, here the romance between English Berry Conway and American Ann Moon (Wodehouse loved to work in trans-continental romances for his American readers) takes up much of the novel and is given a sweetness and warmth not always apparent in Wodehouse's funny, but sometimes slightly mechanical, post-WWII work. Of course, there's plenty of farcical action too, including many inspired sequences set in Wodehouse's "Valley Fields" (a thinly disguised version of the London suburb Dulwich). The hilarious chapter in which Lord Hoddesdon visits Valley Fields - and runs into a menacing fellow with an admiration for Stalin - is alone worth the price of this wonderful book.

I enjoy all of P.G. Wodehouse's novels, and this one is just great. I really liked it. The story kept me interested. If you like a book that's funny and witty here's the book for you.

I LOVE Wodehouse. I have this system where I try to read really thick "smart" books. You know, like the kind you bring up when you're trying to impress people with your intellectual prowess ("Oh yes, I completely agree. In fact, in the 'Metaphysics of Morals', Kant says basically the same thing, albeit more obtusely.") When my brains slither out through my ears in protest, that's when I know that it is time to put down the philosophy and pick up a Wodehouse. They're insanely funny and impossibly witty, and it gives me time to collect the pieces of my gray matter and shove them back in my head for another go at snooty intellectualism.

Typical Wodehouse hilarity, a delightfully tangled plot, and the simplest and most moving marriage proposal scene I've ever read. I like the Wooster and Jeeves books well enough, but I love this one.

I highly recommend this book. It is very funy and entertaining.
One of Wodehouse's best!

THE GIRL IN BLUE has all the elements of classic farce, complete with slamming doors and mixed-up identities, but it never feels preposterous. In many farces, the whole thing would unravel if only one person explained himself or his actions...yet people explain themselves constantly in this book and they still get in terrible scrapes. Very late in Wodehouse's career, but in no way a minor work.

P.G. Wodehouse is famous for his characters and his marvelous mix-ups in English country houses that will remind many readers of the better Shakespearean comedies in which lovers run amok in the Forest of Arden. Writers have always admired his original turns of phrase.

In his later years, Mr. Wodehouse often recycled his characters and the stories became impenetrable in some cases to those who had not read the earlier books. But every so often, he took the time to develop new characters and put them into the usual country house run around. That's exactly what occurred in The Girl in Blue, with very fine results.

Homer Pyle, an eminent corporation lawyer, is abashed to have to rescue his sister, the wealthy Barney Claybourne, from being prosecuted for shoplifting from Guildenstern's on Madison Avenue in New York. It seems like there's a history in the family, and Homer doesn't know what to do. When Guildenstern's insists Barney be taken out of town, that solution proves to be a relief. Guildenstern's suggests that Barney be kept away from department stores so they agree to take Barney to a country home that takes paying guests in England, one Mellingham Hall, operated by the impoverished Crispin Scrope.

Meanwhile in London, Jerry West, Crispin's nephew, finds himself falling in love with a fellow juror. That's a problem because Jerry's already engaged to one of the town's great beauties . . . who happens to be a gold digger.

Crispin's brother, Willoughby, becomes the London host for Homer and Barney and shares with them his pride and joy, a Gainsborough miniature that he has just purchased. Homer panics and the fun begins!

The story proceeds at a comfortable pace to pose all kinds of awkward situations and dilemmas that lead the characters even more into the soup. It's a delightful plot and the characters are even more wonderful. Enjoy!

Things get hairy when it's discovered that a peer and a barber were Switched At Birth. Now that they're grown up, is it too late to switch them back?

This novel is subtitled "Ye Old Baby Switcheroo," and the publisher doesn't mind giving away this much of the plot: "Twenty-eight years later, the son of a barber is now an earl, and the son of an earl is now a barber." So the dual themes are "hair restoration and heir restoration." If that sounds witty and droll, it's a good introduction to the rest of the book. This is an oversized, paperback, large-print edition from the oddly-named publisher, International Polygonics (IPL). I don't think a smaller font version exists in paperback. In the preface D.R. Benson says that If I Were You makes use of a bit of plot from W.S. Gilbert (as in Gilbert and Sullivan), and the sense of theatre runs throughout. Add "enter stage right" and "exit stage left" in a few places and you'd have a corking good play. Add singing and you'd have a sprightly musical. For fans who enjoy seeing Plum's "other life" in musical comedy creep into the books.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone. It's very funny and entertaining. I'd give it more stars if I could. I think this is one of P.G. Wodehouse's best!

Reading P.G.Wodehouse is like going through life after drinking two glasses of champagne. His world is one where everyone would like to live, he is as absurd and as hilarious as life itself. His stories make one giggle; they take one back to that place where everything turns out right, the same state of mind one had when one was five years old. He is as light as a feather, yet his command of the language is uncanny. Wodehouse is addictive!

This collection was my first fore into the Jeeves stories. It's a compilation of several smaller books in this one large hardcover tome. The language the author uses to describe the characters and their surroundings is truly "British" and supremely funny.

'I say, Jeeves,' I said, gratefully accepting the w. and soda, 'it seems we have another five stars to pin to our chest. The Jeeves Omnibus Volume One really hits the spot.'
'Indeed sir, you have admirers everywhere.'
'We, Jeeves, we,' I insisted, credit where due. 'After all, where would I be without you? "X and Wooster" would hardly pack in the many headed. No Jeeves,' I beamed at the honest fellow, 'we are a team, a double act, a faire des groupes de deux.'
`Thank you sir, it is most gracious of you to say so.'
`Not at all Jeeves, not at all.' I placed the restorative on the whatnot. As I did, I noticed a flicker from above Jeeves's left eye. A sure sign, I knew, that he was trying to engage my attention.
`Yes, Jeeves?'
`Well sir, I was merely trying to convey the information that much of the credit must go to the Late Mr. PG Wodehouse.'
`Old Plum?' I nodded sagely. `True Jeeves, very true. Well, Jeeves, mix the doings and I shall drink a toast to him. And you, of course, and the good fellows at the publishing house.'
`I have one already prepared sir.'
`Thank you Jeeves.' I said, and I meant it to stick.
`Thank you, sir, I endeavour to give satisfaction.'

This most excellent tome chronicles some of Wooster's most memorable exploits and keeps the story of Bingo moving along nicely. Pity it's "limited availability" may restrict people from getting their hands on it.

This is such a wonderful collection of the Jeeves/Bertie saga. I can't tell you how many times I have been looked at oddly by people on a plane from laughing out loud.
I reccomend it for all ages, even young children.

The first thing that has to be mentioned about Summer Moonshine is the hero - Joe Vanringham. I think he is the best hero that Wodehouse ever created - tough; street-smart; not at all the usual 'silly ass' and yet not overly romantic or anything like that. (In fact, if you read Bachelors Anonymous you'll realise that Wodehouse's Joes generally tend to be very good!) The plot is extremely complicated as Wodehousian plots tend to be, but even more so than usual. One finds oneself flipping back to check up on what happened where. And then, on finally figuring it out, laughing like a lunatic. It's a charming book, as economical with space and as funny as one has come to expect Wodehouse to be. Sir Buckstone Abbot is one of the best characters Wodehouse has ever come up with - ditto to Sam Bulpitt, and one wonders why they couldn't become recurring characters. But Joe is the best ever! All hail Joe Vanringham! (Forgive my babbling; this is my favorite book ever, as it's not that difficult to figure out.)

stretch out with this for a little get away. The setting is a rambling late Victorian monstrosity country house somewhere in the English countryside during the 1930's. The characters include the Lord of the manor, his family and staff and the guests that are paying to stay there. In typical Wodehouse fashion there are several plots that begin separately and then entertwine in a marvolously convoluted manner to produce delightfuly absurd situations.

There are no appearances by Jeeves or Wooster in this one but the results are still delightful.

I first read this book when I was 18, and like the hero, fell in love with a "not too tall girl with an upturned nose". I must have read this book atleast 200 times. You really do wish you were part of the happenings. I wish I could also howl like a wolf in a restaurant. The mysterious American uncle Sam chewing his gum, Tubby going back to his room with a Union Jack for a towel after he finds that his clothes have vanished while swimming, the house of red glazed brick, the Princess.. This is the book which made me fall in love in an Indian Summer.

Someday I'd like to read a real biography of Wodehouse (as opposed to the dreadful "fan" bios out there) and find out what was happening to him around 1936 -- when he wrote the scathing, angry "Laughing Gas" and this one. "Summer Moonshine" uses Wodehouse plot A: boy-chases-girl-at-country-house. Yet strange feelings of hopelessness and despair creep into it, and when boy loses girl there's a bitterness like in no other Wodehouse novel. It's not bad, but you definitely get the sense that, as the author himself might put it, something's up.

This book is like all the other Wodehouse books, Galahad trying to bring a couple together. It is a wonderful satire on all the earls, lords, dukes etc. etc. This one is about a lover who is posing as a person who is going to paint a pig, the Empress. Wodehouse never finished the book (because he died while writing it), but that makes it even more interesting. But be careful, once you start reading his books, most likely you will not stop. Everybody will be able to enjoy it a little bit, for his books make you laugh until tears come rolling down your cheeks. Cheers! :)

This book will only appeal to those who are hard-core P.G. Wodehouse fans, especially those who love the books about the inhabitants of Blandings Castle and the Empress of Blandings. For these fans, Sunset at Blandings will be a delightful revelation and a final memorial to the great comic master. For everyone else, this book will be a non-starter.

P.G. Wodehouse died, unfortunately, while working on the manuscript for Sunset at Blandings (a title he would never have chosen himself, as the editor notes). The first draft of the manuscript was pretty far along with a story line written for the first sixteen chapters, along with many notes about how to revise those chapters and write the final six.

The noted Wodehouse expert, Richard Usborne, has done a fine job of reviewing the notes and taking his best guess as to how the book probably would have been competed, and arranged to transcribe the remaining hand-written notes which are reproduced here. From those notes, you get a sense of how the marvelously intricate and fast-moving plots were developed and how each page ended up with so many original turns of phrase that bring a smile to the reader's delighted face. It was well worth the trip to understand how much rewriting, condensing and polishing P.G. Wodehouse did. He always makes it seem so effortless. I found it reassuring as a writer to discover that he struggled with his craft much as most writers do.

To me, the book held two other delights that were unexpected. First, Mr. Usborne has considered all of the manuscripts about Blandings Castle and taken a crack at what the floor layout and surrounding grounds might have looked like. That's quite a challenge because P.G. Wodehouse didn't have an editor who cared about continuity to rein him in. The marvelously misshapen incongruities are brought together for a sense of what must usually have been the case in these novels. Second, Mr. Usborne used the railway schedules and descriptions of the surroundings to take a guess about where in Shropshire Blandings Castle was imagined to be. That discussion might seem senseless except when you read the notes about when the Library of Congress began its research to find out about the copy of the Gutenberg Bible that was deposited there in one of the early stories about the castle.

The story is one that holds much promise. Galahad Threepwood is again trying to help young lovers by foiling one of his sisters. He helps his niece, Victoria (Vicky) Underwood, to smuggle in her artist fiancé, Jeff Bennison, under the guise of being a well-known painter of pigs to make an oil of the Empress for the family portrait gallery. As usually, the poor fellow's fault is that he has no money. Naturally, Vicky is rolling in the stuff so the challenge is to get her stepmother out of the way. Vicky wants to elope but Jeff demurs because he wants Clarence to get his pig portrait first. That puts a strain on the old relationship. As another plot line, Sir James Piper, England's Chancellor of the Exchequer, is also drawn to Blandings where he will encounter another of Gally's sisters, Diana Phipps, with whom he is in love . . . but too shy to declare himself. Having a body guard doesn't make matters any easier. What ho! How will it turn out? No one knows for sure, and you guess is as good as Mr. Usborne's is.

Have fun!

Sunset at Blandings was Wodehouse's last and, sadly, unfinished book. What there is of the book is, as Wodehouse's writing invariably is, very funny. Accompanying the unfished novel are some wonderful extras including Wodehouse's plot outline, some of his other notes, the editor's analysis of the book, a short piece about the origins of Blandings Castle and another about the Empress of Blandings. If you're new to Wodehouse you should probably read something else of his first (Leave it to Psmith and Pigs Have Wings are both excellent for first-timers), but for those who like Wodehouse this offers an wonderful look at how he did his writing.

It was a bitter-sweet experience to read this book years ago, knowing it was P.G.'s last, and unfinished to boot. However, the editor (a Wodehouse biographer) included manuscripts and early drafts, showing marginal notes and erasures, Wodehouse's outline of his plot, and false starts of plot lines, and the editor's own analysis. A fascinating look into the process of writing.

From a cat whose haughty opinion counts to a pig that won't eat, these are some wonderful stories. I laughed out loud at quite a few of them and of course the fact that the characters of Jeeves and Wooster make an appearance is simply an added bonus. It made me want to pick up more of Wodehouse's works!

Some of P.G. Wodehouse's best stories feature what he affectionately called the "dumb chums." He was an untiring advocate for the underdog, both four-legged and two-legged, and read that way his stories are delightfully subversive. He and his wife Ethel loved their menagerie of "Pekes" as he called their brood of Pekinese, and together they created the Bide-a-wee animal shelter.

That big-hearted generosity wouldn't necessarily translate into good animal stories, but in Wodehouse it does. This collection is called a Bestiary (Beastiary) after the Medieaval collections of animal fables, and is collected from various volumes of Wodehousiana, including Very Good Jeeves, Mulliner Nights, Blandings Castle, Jeeves, Young Men in Spats, and The Man With Two Left Feet. However, these various stories have been collected in numerous volumes with alternate titles (see the lists in Joseph Connolly's P.G. Wodehouse or Richard Usborne's Plum Sauce or the biography by Donaldson).

All of which makes this the perfect place to meet the Master, as numerous other writers have called him. The animal stories are among his absolute best, and they also serve as an introduction to the Jeeves and Wooster adventures, the Drones Club stories, the Blandings Castle saga, Mr. Mulliner tales and the many one-offs, all being reprinted in hardback by Overlook Press and in paperback by Penguin for new readers who will naturally want to pursue more.

Although I first read this exact edition, the one I have now is different, although I believe the contents are the same. Mine reads: Unpleasantness at Budleigh Court; Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch; Something Squishy; Pig Hooo-o-o-o-ey!; Comrade Bingo; Monkey Business (not the Marilyn Monroe movie); Jeeves and the Impending Doom; Open House; Ukridge's Dog College; The Story of Webster; The Go-Getter; Jeeves and the Old School Chum; Uncle Fred Flits By; and The Mixer.

This is book was my first introduction to PGW. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the stories. His writing style is flawless, which makes his stories jump right off of the page. It's a shame more people aren't familiar with his FUNNY and highly enjoyable body of work. A must have for any zoophile and Wodehouse reader.

I got this book from a friend with whom I share a love of P.G. Wodehouse's writing, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am (like many, I imagine) most familiar with Bertie and Jeeves, but this excellent collection of hilarious stories about the doings of the animal kingdom's most entertaining denizens introduced me to a host of other appealing characters, about whom I now want to read a lot more! BUY THIS BOOK!